the official blog of Walnut Studiolo

Infographic: Comparing leather bar wraps after two years of use

Here’s the story behind the creation of this infographic:

“About four years ago, I was wrapping a customer’s bike with Walnut Sew-on Leather Bar Wraps, and the leather bar tape I was replacing was practically new and I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. So I wrapped one of my hammer handles with it.

I used that mallet almost daily. After about two years, it felt scratchy on my hand. It felt uncomfortable, even distasteful, to pick up. I took a really close look at it, and I thought, this is garbage. The leather coating had worn away to show the fabric backing beneath, typical of cheap bonded leather. The areas that hadn’t worn away looked dirty, gray, furry.

Because you rarely get to actually see leather wear out, I retired that mallet and got a new mallet. I wrapped the new mallet with our leather (Coil Bar Wraps) to see what the difference would be.

After the same amount of time, another two years, one day I remembered that old mallet and I looked at the two, and I thought, Holy crap our leather is even more awesome than I knew.”